Daily News

October hiring to rise, but government shutdown is concern

October 04 2013

Hiring in the U.S. service and manufacturing sectors is expected to rise on a year-over-year basis in October with service-sector hiring rising for the 15th consecutive month, according to the leading indicators of national employment report released by the Society for Human Resource Management.

“The expectations for October are fairly positive,” said Jennifer Schramm, manager of workforce trends and forecasting at SHRM. “But the upbeat report is tempered by ongoing uncertainty from federal budget negotiations.”

The report’s survey found that 43.4 percent of service-sector companies plan to hire in October while 6.1 percent plan to reduce their workforces for a net increase of 37.3 percent, up from a net increase of 33.9 percent in October 2012.

Among manufacturing employers, 51.2 percent plan to add staff in October and 9.3 percent plan to cut for a net increase of 41.9 percent, up from the net increase of 34.6 percent in October 2012.

The report is based on a survey of human resource executives at more than 500 manufacturing and 500 service-sector firms.

SHRM also released this week its jobs outlook report, which showed that 55 percent of respondents have some level of confidence in the U.S. job market for the fourth quarter of 2013.

In the fourth quarter, 35 percent of companies plan to increase staff, down from 44 percent in the second quarter of 2013 but up slightly from 32 percent a year ago, according to the report. Fifty-seven percent plan to maintain staff and 9 percent plan to decrease staff.

The jobs outlook survey is based on a survey of more than 400 public and private-sector human resource professionals with a direct role in the staffing decisions at their respective companies.

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